


The Birth of Goddesses

by neoladyapollonia



Series: Olympus [1]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Greek Mythology-related, Minor Position in British Government, secret agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-25
Updated: 2012-10-25
Packaged: 2017-11-17 00:06:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/545315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neoladyapollonia/pseuds/neoladyapollonia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After earning a minor position in the British government, Mycroft comes across an old book that gives him ideas for his future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Birth of Goddesses

Mycroft sat in his new office and looked around with satisfaction. He was a minor official in the government, on record as an auditor, but his position had little to do with figures. He had networked in university diligently and in his introductory job within the government. His family name had helped of course. Those at Whitehall that were privileged enough to know his parents hadn’t dared snub their eldest and so had embraced him.

He waved his new assistant away as he opened one of the boxes to begin unpacking. Mycroft could tell the man didn’t truly appreciate books and so he didn’t want the man touching his. He’d also had a rather greasy lunch and had failed to properly clean his hands. Mycroft would kill before he’d let his possessions be sullied in such a way. He knew it would take him hours to set up his office on his own, but he would never consider spending time with his books a waste.

True to his estimate, it was a few hours later when he came upon a tome he hadn’t expected to find here. He was especially glad now that he hadn’t let that man assist him. It was a book on Greek mythology, all in Greek of course. It had belonged to his great-great grandfather. He felt an odd pull in his chest as he remembered his mother releasing the nanny at night and reading him stories from this book until he fell asleep. He had done the same for Sherlock when he had been born, his mother sitting proudly behind him as he read the foreign language as easily as if he were a native adult.

He felt a tingling in his eyes and quickly shoved the feeling away. Their mother’s death three years before had only deepened the wedge that had developed between him and Sherlock over the years. 

Mycroft took a deep breath and ran his finger lightly over the cover, wondering who had packed this book with his things. He opened the cover and found a note written in Greek. He read it as easily as if it were English.

_M, I suppose I should congratulate you. Mummy would have wanted me to. You’re going to be even more insufferable now. – S_

His lips twitched with a grin and warmth spread through his chest. He carefully placed the book on the shelf immediately behind his desk, note still inside. He turned to look at his office, remembering how Sherlock had addressed the letter to M. With him well on his way to taking his mother’s previous role in government and the book still firmly in his mind, a forgotten memory from secondary school came to him. One of the boys in his dormitory had brought an Ian Fleming book back from holiday. Mycroft had been intrigued, especially by the character of M. When he told Sherlock of it the next time he had been home, his younger brother had giggled and said that M was for Mummy and Mycroft.

He still had books to put away, plus many other things to do in order to set his office up, but he sat at his desk and pulled a notepad to him. He immediately started writing.

_Olympus – home of the gods_  
Zeus – king of the gods  
Hera – queen of the gods – right hand  
Artemis – goddess of the hunt  
Aphrodite – goddess of sexual passion – seduction  
Athena – goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare  
Persephone – goddess of the underworld  
Hekate – goddess of crossroads and doorways – surveillance?  
Mnemosyne – goddess of memory, mother of the Muses - intelligence 

A rare grin crossed his features. Yes, this was a nice start. He briefly considered listing gods too, but he hadn’t met many men that had given him faith that he could trust them with the tasks he had in mind. Women were much better suited to multi-tasking; that had been scientifically proven. Women in this society were also unintentionally raised to be subtly manipulative and delightfully underhanded, a perfect trait for the work he would need done. He knew with his resources and cleverness, he would be able to find the perfect women to fill the roles he needed.

He paused for a moment. He didn’t want any of his girls’ real names to be known and he didn’t want their Olympian name to be traced back to them either if at all possible. He searched his brain for any epithets he could think of offhand before he went looking through his books. Anthea. Anthea was an epithet for Hera. That was a lovely name. He quite liked it. With another smile, he bent back over his notepad.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I love the name Anthea and looked it up. It's an epithet, another name, for Hera. So then I started thinking about Greek goddesses and I got the idea that Mycroft's network of operatives is made up of women with Greek goddess code names. Hera is Anthea's code name. She didn't want to tell John her actual code name, so she went with the one she uses when she accompanies Mycroft to places and people ask for her name.  
> This is going to be a whole series that introduces people to a few operatives in his network.


End file.
